Wednesday January 25, 2017

It turns out that Ruslan Stoyanov, head of the computer incidents investigation team at Kaspersky, used to work at a cybercrime-related division with the Russian police, where he may have been up to no good. They haven’t been very specific as to what led to the charges, but it sounds to me like he was giving up state secrets for cash. Naturally, Kaspersky has already denied any involvement in this incident, pointing out that his crime happened before his hiring at the anti-virus company.

"The case against this employee does not involve Kaspersky Lab," a Kaspersky Lab representative said in an email statement. "The employee, who is Head of the Computer Incidents Investigation Team, is under investigation for a period predating his employment at Kaspersky Lab." The company doesn't have details about the investigation, but the work of its computer incidents response team is unaffected by this incident, the representative said. Kommersant reported that the probe is looking into possible violations of Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code. This article concerns high treason in the form of "espionage, disclosure of state secrets or any other assistance rendered to a foreign State, a foreign organisation, or their representatives in hostile activities to the detriment of the external security of the Russian Federation." Violations of this article carry prison sentences of 12 to 20 years.